PAC was unaware of $12m spent on suspended Agyapa deal – Kofi Adams

The Member of Parliament for Buem and a member of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Kofi Adams, has expressed surprise over the government's undisclosed $12 million expenditure on the suspended Agyapa royalties deal.

This revelation came during a PAC sitting on Tuesday, February 13, where Edward Nana Yaw Koranteng, the CEO of the Minerals Income Investment Fund (MIIF), disclosed the expenditure related to the initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange before the deal's suspension.

Initially proposed to raise funds for infrastructure projects through mineral royalties, the Agyapa deal faced opposition from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and civil society organizations, leading to its suspension.

Kofi Adams, speaking to Umaru Sanda Amadu on Eyewitness News, highlighted the committee's lack of awareness of the expenditure, noting that it was revealed only through a public interest inquiry.

He emphasized that neither the committee nor the Auditor General's report had previously captured this spending.

Kofi Adams criticized the lack of transparency surrounding the $12 million expenditure, particularly given the challenges the country faced.

He indicated that the decision to halt the deal was made without MIIF's involvement, with the Ministry of Finance granting approval for the investment and the Attorney General advising on the suspension.

“This is the very first time that we all are being provided with this information that the country actually wasted $12 million of its money at the time we have been told that the country was faced with a number of challenges in chasing after a ghost. And that the president and all those who considered this whole deal never informed all of us that $12 million of our money had already been funded into a project that didn’t have the permission of appropriate bodies.

“According to the CEO of MIIF, the Ministry of Finance gave them the go-ahead to go into such an investment and that in taking a decision to stop, they were not involved. And that he could not even provide us with the reasons why the decision to stop was taken. And according to him, the letter to stop was sent to the Attorney General, who looked at it and advised. They as MIIF were not involved in any way in terms of stoppage. And truly speaking, this was the first time. And this was not even in the Auditor General’s report but this was out of a public interest question… A member wanted to know about the Agyapa deal and the recent investment in the lithium found in the central region,” he added.

NAY/AE